Absorbent articles such as paper diapers (for infants and adults), sanitary napkins, incontinence articles, training pants or the like are articles that absorb bodily fluids such as urine excreted from a wearer by means of an absorber that makes use of wooden pulp, a super absorbent polymer (hereinafter referred to as “SAP”) or the like.
Conventionally, the outermost surface has been the top sheet and it had a configuration in which a wearer's skin was in constant contact with excreted urine and feces and also had a configuration in which urine and feces were mixed, since both urine and feces were received thereon.
In this way, when the excreted urine and feces made contact with the wearer's skin, problems such as staining, a feeling of discomfort, rashes and the like would occur. Additionally, when the urine and feces were mixed, the pH value of the urine changes, and thus, problems, such as rashes being prone to arise and odors becoming stronger, would occur.
On the other hand, it is known to provide a skin contact sheet which is made to abut the wearer in a closely-attached condition by a resilient member and which has an opening for the permeation of feces (see Patent Documents 1 to 3). The absorbent articles described in Patent Documents 1 to 3 have a configuration in which a skin contact sheet is arranged above the outermost surface such that it floats from the top surface of the absorber and is constantly in a closely-attached condition with the skin, such that contact with excreted urine and feces is avoided, and a urine/feces contact sheet, an absorber, and a urine/feces barrier sheet above the rear surface are arranged in this order from the top.
In addition, it is known that, by means of a configuration in which a bridging member or the like, which is provided so as to laterally traverse an internal space in the absorbent article so as to separate such internal space into a front space and a back space, is provided so as to stand up from the absorber, urine is received in the front side space and feces are received in the rear side space and thus, contact with the urine and feces is prevented (see Patent Document 4).
Moreover, as an absorbent article which can effectively separate urine and feces and which has a high urine absorption capacity, an absorbent article provided with: a first leak preventer in sheet form; a second leak preventer in sheet form, which is present at a rear part of a top part of the first leak preventer; and an absorber which contains a super absorbent polymer and which is capable of absorbing a bodily fluid, wherein at least one layer thereof is arranged from a front part of the top part of the first leak preventer to a lower side of the second leak preventer, is known (see Patent Document 5).